High School Playoffs Edition

Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHRs. Playback Rs.

Just hits different during hockey season. Sure does. We're talking hockey tonight, everybody.

We've got badgers to talk about. We've got river kings to talk about.

We will have plenty more to get to as well. And a fell action.

We want to touch on that. We'll look at the college and NFL schedules for the weekend.

I'll get into all of those things. But before I get too far ahead of myself,

your host James here with you, I am joined by my partner in art in sports.

My man Seth Habagger. Good afternoon. I'm evening now.

It seems like evening now. I guess I should say evenings after five.

I love seeing this sunset. I saw the sunrise this morning.

Yep, the sunset. That's cool. That's beautiful.

We got an amazing view from right here at the WFHR Studios.

Right over by our roundabout. Be sure to stop by and buy some time.

We love seeing all of y'all. We of course appreciate our friends over a quality plus printing.

Just talked to Phil a little while ago. That's right.

His ears are burning today. A lot.

Yeah, but we appreciate them. Spots are in the hour here.

And phone lines are wide open. I feel like in order to be an official sports show,

do we need to like, and the, you know, ACME phone line is wide open.

Do we need a sponsorship for our phone line?

Hey, business is out there.

We need a sponsor. Need a sponsor for the phone line.

Make it real official. The ACME phone line is wide open.

The ACME phone line is wide open. Great business.

Yeah, great company.

You know, I don't buy their products.

No, I watched this cartoon when I was a kid.

And man, this poor coyote could never get a good product.

This is an ACME.

I saw this documentary about the ACME company.

It always bad things happen.

You don't see a lot of documentaries in cartoon.

You don't see that a lot.

But we did with the coyote and the roast.

Just, you know, it was me meeting. That was it.

Road runner and coyote.

That's, I didn't have that out by your Playbaker's big go card.

Not today's show.

Phone lines are open, everybody.

715-424-2600.

Want to kick off getting into a little bit

actually baseball talk.

Because these feel like during this time of year,

this feels like the only time

when we can talk baseball is these few moments.

It breaths between football or basketball

or any other sport going on right now.

And certainly, for those baseball officials out there,

those baseball fans, I imagine that most of you know

that this is hot stove season.

This is the, this is fun.

I love hot stove.

It's one of my favorite things.

Yeah, absolutely.

Since I was a little kid,

I have loved the hot stove season.

I appreciate this time of year.

I would imagine that most people out there by now,

if you're like, uh, Seth and I,

and, and more so Seth than me,

because his brain really understands

baseball and knows a lot more about it,

you probably have heard where the term hot stove

comes from.

It comes from.

But that's where I want to go.

Okay, I'm going to start with the hot stove

and apology.

I love it.

Yeah, yeah.

I have an idea.

I don't know if it's true though.

I just turned okay.

Like a legend.

I don't know if it's true.

The term hot stove comes from early days of baseball

when fans would gather around a literal hot stove during the winter

to discuss their favorite teams.

And the early days of baseball players would stay in shape

by playing in their hometowns during the off season

while staying warm by playing around hot stoves.

Wow.

These leagues were known as the hot stove lease.

Oh, oh, okay.

So it's, it's kind of a double thing there.

They could be the fans or the players.

That's cool.

In the 19th century, fans would gather around that hot stove

to discuss baseball as well.

The term hot stove became kind of a predecessor to the water cooler

where people would gather to discuss that topic.

Right.

And it dates back to the 19th century

and everything and eventually baseball took that time of year

as well to have their winter meetings.

Right.

So they really got the idea of the winter meetings

and we're in to have them from the hot stove.

Well, that's interesting.

It all comes from that.

Right.

Wow.

And of course, for those who don't know,

of course, that's the winter meetings

or the big all the teams

and their executives get together

to talk about the season coming up rules.

But it's also for the wheel and deal in time.

Yeah.

Lots of trades happen there.

Some free agent signings

because all the agents are there as well.

The player agents.

So it's kind of a big time for the hot stove

is as during the winter meetings,

which makes sense hot stove winter meetings, you know.

That's right.

Even though they usually spend it in like Florida.

Right, right.

Or Phoenix or somewhere in Southern California.

Or like this year,

a Jerry world at Dallas, Texas,

where I think it was last year

and everything.

December 8th through the 12th,

the baseball meetings will be going on.

It'll be more exciting than what's

that the football field.

Let's do that for the ball start.

Yeah.

Let's get into some of that

because our certainly the team

to where we broadcast here in Wisconsin

and Milwaukee Brewers have already gotten ahead of that.

I've gotten early on the jump on this one.

They've gotten a jump start on that.

I would say the hot stove season.

Winter's still letting a lot of people know.

We are declining Devon Williams Club option.

A 10 mil Jeff Passon reported this just last week.

Okay.

So he'll receive a buyout.

And then there is the move where they're picked up

Freddie Peralta.

Amid his option.

Yeah, they picked up his option.

And a club option on Eric Hassa.

Hassa also remains with the organization

and is in arbitration.

Oh, arbitration eligible.

Okay.

The Burst decision to decline the option on Williams

means the 30 year old will make whatever

an arbitrator decides unless the picture

and the team work out a deal, which is more than likely.

Yes.

He will be playing for another team next year

more than likely.

Yeah.

There is a lot of talk about them going after Pete Alonzo.

There's been a lot of word about that.

You're first lady.

And if you were, if you're listening for the past year,

yeah, you had that ahead of time.

Seth has had that.

Yeah.

Tell him and tell him you this.

I don't know why you guys don't listen to us more.

I would be like the perfect player.

Not only for, you know, his power

because the, you know,

amp amp field, good for home runs, right?

Good home run hitting park.

And his, his whole demeanor, man, he is fit.

He would fit it so perfectly in the Midwest.

He, Milwaukee would embrace the polar bear.

Man, they would embrace him.

Now normal, like about three, four years ago,

I would have said, well, they got Reese Haskins

and everything.

What are they going to do at first?

But with the DH position now and everything,

this fits.

Yeah, this fits pretty well.

You do have the issue with Christian Yelich still.

If you were looking to move him to DH,

eventually, but that's a good problem to have.

Right.

It's been too many first baseman.

How many, too many DHs or what have you?

You can't have enough bats.

Right.

What has been one of the main issues for Milwaukee

over many years?

Like a lot of teams, not just Milwaukee,

but runs.

You know, you got a score.

You got a score.

And they haven't been able to do it as much.

You get a pretty lot on so in there.

Right.

You know, you can keep the pieces you already have.

I'm not talking about Willie Adamus.

Look, I don't mind Willie Adamus.

I like him as a player.

And if he resigned with the Brewers,

that's awesome.

But I do think that what you had in Willie Adamus

is lightning in a bottle in contract year.

Yeah.

You had a guy going into a contract here and knew it.

I don't know that you're going to see those numbers next year.

You might see similar numbers,

but I don't think you're going to see

not only those numbers, that energy.

We didn't see it before the contract year.

We didn't really see it.

We saw it in spurts.

And we certainly saw it on defense

and on the base running and everything.

But the hitter we didn't see.

Maybe he keeps that going.

I hope he does wherever if he's in Arizona.

I don't care.

I wish him well.

But if I'm a businessman, I got to decide these things.

And I'm looking at Willie Adamus.

I'm looking at Devon Williams.

And I'm looking at that cap that I've got.

Or not that cap.

That's not really cap.

But yeah, you know what I mean.

Your own self-imposed cap.

Yeah, a lot of owners do that.

Even if I can't, maybe I don't land Pita Lanzo.

And I'm just using Pita Lanzo as an example.

You can insert any free agency names you want into this.

I want the chance to be able to go after them.

And I want to prove to my fan base.

Look, we're willing to open up the checkbook.

Yes.

And we still use a checkbook.

It's weird to say like I'm going to tip whip out the credit card.

Yeah, see that doesn't the checkbook sounds better.

Ben Mo you.

You don't know.

It doesn't sound as good.

Bring up the Venmo app.

And the brewers have also proven this.

Not just I are trying to prove this to their fan base.

They've already proven it to MLB at large.

As Matt Arnold was selected as an MLB executive of the year.

Yes, congrats to him.

You know, most boring word.

But still, it's good.

If it's your guy that was picked, that's good though.

You know what?

It's the most boring award.

But I as a white sock fan right now would almost

rather my team win that award than an MVP.

Oh my gosh.

Tell me how crazy I am right ahead.

Seven one four four two four twenty six hundred.

But what I wouldn't give for a well-run franchise.

It's just trying to maybe they don't win at all.

But my god, they're competitive every year.

And you can root for that team.

One of my like I'm looking at the team like right now.

And they're they're flirting with Nashville.

And I'm wondering, well, should I be upset about that or not?

It's more alert.

I am very upset about it.

I'm trying to joke through it.

But I would say, hey, give me that award over giving me an MVP.

Plenty of teams have one have an MVP who don't win a world series.

The brewers are one of those teams have had an MVP

and have won a world series exactly.

I'd much rather have the executive of the year.

I would rather have the group of players that gets me there

than the one brilliant player.

But I mean, yeah, taking a, you know,

a bigger perspective on this.

And then, you know, there's a great article at ESPN.com.

Dave Schaunfield, a good ICN writer over there does.

Or they're kind of looking at what are the bowl predictions?

What are the top the big things that we can look at in baseball.

And he has for the brewers here.

The brewers win the National League Central.

I do, how is that bold?

That's what they do.

That's just what they do in Milwaukee.

I mean, they've got, they've got it this great, you know, this young core,

you know, Jackson Cheerio.

They've got Bryce Tarrang.

They've got these really nice young players.

They've got some good veterans on there.

You know, Reese Hoskins, maybe, maybe Pete Alonzo, you know,

that kind of stuff.

They've got some good starting pitching.

They're, it looks like they're going to have to do a little work with their bullpen,

which I mean, every team has to do that, basically.

But they got a good foundation.

I mean, you're right.

I don't think it would be that surprising if they won the central again.

They are, they picked out 16 of 26 preseason votes to win the NFL Central again next year.

And this is before any moves have been made and anything done.

They're actually less than they were last year because they don't,

they have these players that are already off the team, everybody knows.

Right.

So and they're still predicting them to win it.

Now that I don't all the team,

I know this is no nothing against the brewers.

I think it does say a little bit about the central as well.

I don't know if it's as good as we thought it was.

I think it's got a lot of nice pieces.

And we got some teams like, I don't know.

I actually, I don't really like the Cincinnati Reds.

They've had a lot of players over the years that I've liked,

but I'm not a fan necessarily on that team in part because of the ownership usually.

It's hard not to keep an eye on them and not to pull a little bit form right now with,

with, you know, they're, they're manager.

Terry, Frank, going on, Tito, yep.

I like Tito.

I like him.

I like him as a manager.

And I'm kind of excited for him to be in the NFL Central.

I like him in our division.

I like him in there.

That's going to be fun.

That's going to be interesting.

There's going to be, it's going to be really interesting in the,

the National League Central this year because you've got Cincinnati

who now has a very, you know, experienced coach, manager, all the talent.

I mean, they got so much talent.

You've got Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh who's got some of the worst ownership in the league.

But they also have one of the best pictures in the league with Paul Skins.

Can we build around Paul Skins?

I don't know.

The Cubs, you can't count them out.

The Cubs can always, they've got the

pocketbook, speaking of money, they can always sign some names, you know.

So it's, it's going to be, that's going to be okay.

And then the Cardinals, you know.

And I know they've had two years in a row.

They haven't been so good.

But how long can you count them out?

Oh, yeah, you can't.

You really can't.

And I, I think I've joked with Michael about this.

If I haven't, I've meant to.

Honestly, the Cardinals are that team.

They're the boogie man.

They, they, they, the, um, the monster at the end of the movie,

where you think they're dead.

Boom, they're right back up.

Exactly.

You thought I, you think I got rid of me?

Ha, ha, ha.

They almost did it last year.

There was a point last year where, and I thought it was, I thought it was actually kind

of funny because my team isn't in that division and everything.

Uh, when I see that happening where the Cardinals win five out of 10 or, or five out of six

or something, yeah, right.

Everything a little streak.

You immediately see everybody in that division, like just getting a little bit tighter.

Just getting them.

Oh, no, not the Cardinals.

That's all they did last year really had was like a, uh, a week or two where they were

pretty competitive.

Uh, and they certainly had a decent season, even without getting into the playoffs and

everything.

Not by Cardinals standard.

No, I would say by, oh, I don't know, white socks started like most of the rest of the

league.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, Michael had an interesting point.

I think it was off air.

The last, uh, Wednesday, they're looking, uh, it does look like they may move contraris

to first base.

Yes.

That is, that's where it's headed.

Um, uh, are they going to mess him up?

I don't know.

Ever since they signed him, it's been weird.

They've done, like, he's not catching anymore.

He's only deaching when they started freaking out, you know, two years ago when they suddenly,

one of this big losing streak and they started blaming him for their pitching staff.

It's like, whoa, it's weird to me when they signed somebody and it doesn't work.

That's true.

That's true.

I don't know.

It's going to be a while before that changes.

I'm sure that, like, especially, uh, Michael, a fan of the team could tell me, well,

this guy, this guy, this guy didn't work out, but to me, whoever they signed just seems

to work out.

Right.

And they seem to get guys that, um, that, uh, are not only fit that team in that city,

but fit, uh, winning, you know, they, they, they, so, you know, right now, another surprise,

I was convinced that someone was going to hire skip Schumacher's a manager.

Nope.

He went and took a front office job, which was really interesting.

Where, yeah, what happened with that?

I can't even sign.

I can't even remember where he signed, but I just noticed today he, he took a front office

job and I was like, oh, well, that's fascinating.

I really thought someone would really be going after him hard for a manager job.

I got, uh, well, for one, I wonder if it's about, um, hey, uh, you know, I'm a young guy.

Uh, maybe I don't need to stress in my life, um, or, or the money, certainly, um, but,

uh, I, um, he, I haven't, um, trying to see where he, yeah, yeah, he, he, he went somewhere

when I can't remember where it was.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

So yeah, I haven't seen anything yet here, but I'll keep looking.

Um, what, one thing that I do know, uh, is that eventually he'll be a manager again.

Well, I think he won't get a job somewhere again.

Don't make him an offer.

Yeah.

Um, and I want to wrap up a little baseball talk.

No, we could certainly talk more baseball if you want to call up seven one five four two

four twenty six hundred.

Do you have the power to shut me up at any point everybody, uh, no packers this week.

You know, no badger football this week.

Yeah.

It's like, uh, what are we doing?

I love, uh, this could not have happened, but I love the idea if the NFL and NCA were

like, you know what, let's give Wisconsin a week off of football during the, during election

week.

You've had enough stresses.

Let's just go ahead and let you guys relax this weekend.

You know, that swing state thing, man, so, so, so rough watch the watch some hockey,

watch some hockey and nice relaxing sport like hockey, support your river kicks.

Um, I want to actually, uh, go to, uh, I have two stats of the show today.

I want to get to, uh, well, I've won after our break, uh, but for right now, I want to

talk a little bit about Jim Cot.

Kenny, yes.

Uh, I, I happened to see, uh, and I didn't get to watch all of it, but Kitty could, to

Cooper's town.

Oh, amazing documentary.

This, uh, really wonderful one.

It came out just, uh, recently, uh, it's about, uh, the, uh, Jim Cotts at eight decades

in baseball have been full of wit, knowledge as a player, coach, a broadcaster, his love

of the game begins in rural America and comes to full circle and the baseball Hall of

Fame.

Uh, induction in 2022.

And this is, uh, I love letter in some ways to his career.

But it's also, uh, the, the, the work that was done to try to get him into the Hall of

Fame.

Yeah.

Which is, which is really interesting.

Ridiculous.

Really ridiculous, really insane.

Now, I don't, uh, no, I'm not a baseball historian, but I know a little bit, um, and I was,

I was blown away, like, I, I've heard the name and I know him and like a lot of people

of our generation knew more of his broadcaster than as a, uh, you know, player, but I wasn't

dumb to his playing career.

I understood he was a good player and then I looked at his stats and his career and I really

broke it down and I really got into it and dear God, why was he not in the hall?

Hall of Fame.

Uh, and, and, and can you call it a Hall of Fame?

If he wasn't in it, the, the nice thing about, uh, about, uh, time is we get different

ideas of what makes a Hall of Famer, you know, we can have someone like Sandy Kofax,

who was brilliant.

I mean, the best pitcher in baseball for six straight years and then has to retire because

of injuries, but you, he needs to be in the Hall of Fame.

He needs to be up because of his brilliance in those, in those six years.

Yeah.

So I'm like, Jim Kott, who pitched for 25 years, 25 years.

That is my number 25, 25 years.

And he was one of the best fielding, uh, pitchers of all time.

He won like 16 gold gloves or some ridiculous number like that.

He pitched, he started early in his career and later on, he became a reliever.

He was in a couple of world series, you know, I, I mean, I think you do.

You have to reward someone.

Regardless, I mean, he had some good, he had a couple of 20 win seasons, you know, he

was a really good left hander.

But sometimes you have to reward more than just the stats.

The ability to stay in the league for that long and be effective is remarkable.

I, uh, I will only piggyback on that.

I agree with all of that.

I will only piggyback on that being one of the original players, one of the early players.

I mean, one of the trailblazers.

Um, I think you could make an argument whether you're talking any major sport, the first

players, the first guys, those first, uh, that first group of players, the first decade

of players, if you will, uh, could all be inducted into Hall of Fame.

Right.

Because none of us are here talking about these, making a career off of talking about sports

or, or the many, many, many, many, many jobs and millions and millions of dollars in

sports without these early players.

Um, a lot of people I look up to in this industry, they will make comments often about how,

well, you can't take, if you put this player back and then, then they, they wouldn't, they

would blow people away.

LeBron back in the 40s and 50s would destroy Will Chamberlain and all, all these players

and everything.

And, and I'm not disagreeing with any of that, but I also think you, you sound like a

child.

Do you not understand how this works?

No.

Like, of course that happened when it happened.

Of course, this is, we don't get LeBron without those early players.

So to, the idea of discounting championships or not, that's like, you're, you're becoming

the NCAA.

You're becoming, you're vacating wins that we all see.

We all saw them with championships and, and I don't mean that obviously saw them with

their own eyes.

I'm not that old.

But we know, we, we know that history tells us that, uh, Green Bay and Chicago went so

many championships before the NFL merged that, uh, in basketball, these things happen

before the AFL and they, you know, the NBA and the ADA and all the other things, yeah.

Too many initials.

Yeah.

Wait to me, letters.

Don't tell me those things don't count just because the athletes weren't where they

are now.

Like, what are you doing?

You don't get to do, you don't get to, and then you don't also get to do that.

Who are you?

And how, how much do you think of yourself?

Well, I, I, I've studied sports or I went to school and I graduated from this and

everything.

Missed me with all that.

I don't care.

I, I respect that.

But you lose me at the idea of these championships don't count because blank.

Did they win?

Yes.

What is sports about winning?

It is not about, there's not an asterisk who won the 1989 World Series.

Well, they didn't play a team that was as good as this 2024 Dodgers.

So it doesn't count.

What the what, man?

You don't get to do that.

That was 30 years ago.

Yeah.

The game was different.

Everything was, it's different.

It's almost apples and oranges.

There's a lot of people I look up to and I admire that will have thoughts like that

and I wonder, why do I look up to them?

Like, like, what are you doing?

Not that.

So that, you mentioned the fielding with Mr. Cot.

And I think that's noteworthy along with 283 wins, a 345 ERA 625 game started.

No one is even going to approach that, by the way, in this day and age.

Never.

And out of all of those, 180 of them complete games, named the three All Stars.

But I thought he, I thought I, that one of my favorite players and one of my favorite

stats, which I've actually been hanging onto for baseball season to get into for a

stat of the show.

Oh, I'm going to do right now because it just segues too good into it.

I thought that Cot would have had this record.

Or Burley, one of my all-time favorite pitchers.

And certainly one of my all-time favorites, like top five favorite white socks, full

time.

Burley won his second career Gold Glove award in November of 2010.

He is the only pitcher in MLB history to win multiple gold gloves and throw multiple

no hitters.

I would have thought that Cot would have done that too.

Back in 2011, he won his third gold glove in a fielding Bible award as well.

I don't know if a lot of people know what that is.

I don't even know what that is.

I don't even know what that is.

I don't even know what that is.

I don't even know what that is.

The thing that Mark Burley is not in the Hall of Fame actually makes a lot of sense.

But I think he belokes in that, man, he needs my personalall.

He needs to be in the Hall of Fame just for that play he made.

Between the legs flipped, Paul Knerko, that's still one of my favorite all-time plays.

Seth, it plays in my head so often, so often during this time of year.

Before you go to break, I do want to talk a little River Kings because they are in action

tonight.

They are.

River Kings playing tonight.

Seth's going to be covering that one for you and taking on the northward sex press.

Like in Seth, we'll be covering that one for you actually.

It's going to be fabulous, man.

I know James, last time, the home opening weekend, you went to the opening game and I wasn't

obviously, I was here, but it sounded like that place was rocking.

It was so wonderful to see not only a huge turnout, that was, honestly, I'll be, just not

to make this light of that or anything, but I wasn't too surprised.

It's the first home opener I see isn't everything.

It was the energy.

It takes time to build that kind of stuff usually.

Not here.

It felt like that crowd was waiting since last year's last home game and the buzzer went

for this moment.

It was so cool to see there is this really cool vibe that you get at River Kings games,

that you wouldn't get in an NHL game.

There is so much going on and I love NHL games.

I've gone to many games at the United Center.

I've seen the Blackhawks play a lot and I've loved every single moment and I've seen them

lose actually more than win and I've still enjoyed myself.

It's a great place to see a game.

But with this, you're getting into the game and you're cheering on the team while at

the same time there are kids playing around.

There are friends catching up.

It's got both.

It's got this great energy, energy of a hockey and this hockey energy while also being

a great place to go and take the family.

I do want to remind everybody, you know, hockey, look, we're all adults in a hockey game,

even 8-year-olds, but you know, watch your language.

There was somebody there that was acting like a fool and I would have said something if

I was a different guy, if it was me 20 years ago, it ain't my place anymore to do those

things but I was this close, man, I was so close, act like an adult, act like an adult.

There's a lot of families there.

Let's keep this in perspective.

And have fun and enjoy the winning road that is going on with the Kings.

For those that didn't get a chance to catch the Kings last night, for one victory over

the Del's ducks, nice one by them and once again, 31 shots on goal, that is what we're looking

for.

I would say 30 plus is the magic number of shots on goal for your Kings, and in comparison,

the Del's had 35, which is a little high usually for Kings the way they play defense and everything.

You've got a team that is early on in the season feeling it.

They're feeling it.

They really seem to be.

We've got a lot of energy and as I will keep reminding our audience, because we haven't

been in this position that often.

From time to time and not that often, we got a winning franchise.

We're celebrating 10 years of Kings hockey.

We've had some great 10 years here, not a lot of down years.

This is different.

This is different.

We're the hunted now.

They're coming for us.

It means something to beat the Kings.

They're marking us on their calendars and nobody knows that better than this team and

their coaching staff and they're playing like it.

On the other side, they've had to do the hunting, but the script has changed.

You want to come for the King.

You best not miss.

We've got a lot of people missing right now.

We've got a lot of people missing.

Kings are going to continue that winning streak tonight on our sister station, 105, WIRI,

7 o'clock, River Kings hosting the Northwest Express Mike and Seth covering that for you.

If you could make it to the to the rink, go right ahead.

Please do.

Show them what you did to do that.

Yeah.

Show them what home ice advantages and everything.

We love being able to fill that up and people know that they're coming to rapids.

They know that they got to put their earplugs in.

They know that it's going to be a rough crowd and a loud crowd and everything.

So we encourage you to go ahead and if you can't make it there, we got you covered.

Help us help the boys of Winter build hockey up and down the river.

All season long right here at not only 975 FM 1320 AM, but of course our sister station

105, WIRI where we play their home games.

Yep.

All season long.

We're able to do that.

Thanks.

There's some great sponsors out there.

Well, one of them happens to be quality plus.

How do you like that?

Come to the right.

Perfect.

We got to plan these things out.

That worked out really good.

Somehow it worked.

We'll be back with more playmakers here on WFHR, locally grown radio.

Welcome back everyone to WFHR's playmakers.

Seth and James hanging out with you this Friday afternoon, Friday edition of the show,

turn up the week.

A couple of quick notes, little little corrections.

Not really.

We just didn't know.

Skip Schumacher has joined the Texas Rangers baseball ops as a senior advisor.

Okay.

There we go.

They're getting all kinds of former players that they got Chris Young as their GM or Pobo.

I can't remember if he's their Pobo or GM.

Either way, they got some smart players, former players in Texas.

I think they're going to do a lot better next year.

I really do.

It's really hard to be, if they don't turn into a mash unit, that's all that's been

over there lately.

Right.

Even that team, the World Series was full.

They had a lot of injuries.

Yeah.

And they're not the only ones.

Certainly.

No.

That is just one of the, there is no bigger problem in sports than health.

Yeah.

There is no bigger problem.

Players, contracts, all these other things.

Nothing is bigger in sports than not being able to keep your stars on the field, no matter

what sport we're talking about.

It's killing my fantasy football team.

Geez.

I hear you, I hear you.

I want to talk a little football with everybody and get into my stat of the show for this one.

And not only does it come with the stat of the show, it comes with a hot take.

A hot, ooh, I like the hot stick.

Hot takes.

Yeah.

Hot juicy takes.

A lot of people don't know this.

They don't work in media and everything.

But in order to call ourselves a sports show, we have to have so many hot takes a week.

Otherwise, they will take us off the air.

And we have a quota.

Yes, yes.

To meet.

And we always want your help with that, everybody.

Your hot takes count.

Your hot takes count.

We love the hot take.

Call up 715-424-2600.

I am prepared to say that Jamar Chase is the greatest wide receiver in football.

And it's not even close.

Really?

And I think Justin Jefferson is amazing.

Justin Jefferson's route running, his eyes, his connection with a quarterback that he's

known for a week, and that could be multiple guys we could be talking about.

And going back to college, incredible wide receiver.

But it's his LSU teammate that I think is the better player and the better going, I don't

want to say going to have the better career or anything like that.

I'm giving you an opinion, a take.

So of course, it can be wrong, but it also, it's mine.

And you can say what yours is out there.

I want to hear your takes.

Go ahead and give them to us, everybody.

It's really easy to say this after last night.

It was an amazing game.

Jamar Chase caught 11 passes for 264 yards and three touched out.

Also had 193 yards during an overtime loss to the Ravens in week five, giving a total

of 457 receiving yards in two games.

That is an NFL record.

That's got to be.

That's an NFL record.

Got to be a record.

For a wide receiver, most yards against a team in a season.

Yep.

Nobody's ever done anything like that.

Jamar also broke other records in that game that you can single season NFL records at

least.

Nothing too crazy.

He also though, hurt his team by doing something by what a lot of people are saying who was

show boating, but it was actually him not misunderstanding the clock a little bit, but

a lot of costs.

It's team a couple of seconds there.

So I died.

Why not, you know, cover all bases here and that's saying he's perfect.

And no player is, right.

But if I've got to, okay, hey, you can have any wide receiver in the NFL before you even

finish that sentence.

I am saying Jamar Chase easily, easily.

I'm a huge Roma Duse fan.

I love that young man.

I love his game.

I just mentioned Justin Jefferson, which if that's your counter, you know, if that's your

second prize, wow, not so bad.

And you would get an argument from a lot of people that Jefferson is the best easily.

I mean, before this season, Tyree Kill would usually be in that.

But with what happened with two boy, he disappeared and which means can he be the best if he doesn't

have the right guy in there?

I mean, it helps for Jamar Chase to have a Joe Burrow.

No question about it, having one of the better quarterbacks in the league.

But yeah, I think his stock has gone down, Tyree Kill, I mean, has gone down a little bit

because of the non-production when two was not in the lineup.

And age has played into that a little bit too.

Right.

It always gets said, well, how good is this quarterback if he's got these weapons?

I think it's same can be said for a receiver oftentimes.

How good is the quarterback?

This is where I think Justin Jefferson steps up above anybody else where it doesn't matter

to the quarterback.

It doesn't matter to the quarterback, yeah.

We don't know really what Jamar Chase.

And that goes back to college even some ways.

He was good in college before Joe Burrow, but even when he worked with Burrow, of course,

at LSU.

Yes.

Maybe the greatest offense we've ever seen in college for long.

But it's all of these things, the numbers, all that stuff.

What I'm focused on is one of the most important things in a wide receiver's resume.

Yuck.

And one of the best things to say in football.

Yuck.

It's his yards after catch.

And not just yards after catch.

What does he do with the ball when he catches it?

What do you expect?

What do you think he can do?

And there are very few wide receivers in NFL history that the second he is a wide receiver

when he lines up, where he lines up, his attitude when he is, when he is lining up.

The second he catches the ball, he becomes a running back.

And it's not just in the way he plays in the hits he can take and all those things.

It is his acceleration, his stop and start acceleration, his ability to pull away from

corners that are running for three, four, fours at the combine.

And he's pulling away from them when they've got a head start, when they know where he

wants to go.

And they still can't stop him.

Like Justin Jefferson does some stuff that is so amazing when it comes to contested catches

and his hands getting away from a corner.

So many things.

Again, I don't have any problem.

I can't really argue with you if you say he's the best in football.

But I'm going to try because I think that what Jamar Chase does is just such a difference

maker.

It is so different than what these guys do.

It's everything we talked about with Terry Kill in his prime.

Generally, I think it's referred to as explosiveness, which is perfectly encapsulated by yards after

catch, especially for wide receivers.

Is it possible they have the two fastest guys in the NFL on the Bengals with Chase

Brown?

Yeah.

I think Chase Brown is also an insanely fast guy.

Exactly.

Xavier Worthy in Kansas City is insanely fast, too.

Yeah.

He's fast, too.

Nice to meet you.

He has a healthy.

There's a couple.

But those, yeah, you're right.

You'll make the argument.

Yeah.

We also are joined on Fridays by our good friend, Michael Comer.

Michael, how are you doing?

Doing all right.

You guys forgot to mention my name in the speed aspect.

I always do this when I'm talking motivation.

You know, I don't think these things through and I miss a name.

I apologize, Michael.

I am really sorry for that.

I did.

And James, you remember what we talked about off the air about motivation and ACDC?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, that's it.

Mike, I'm going to put you on the spot for a minute here.

I say best wide receiver in football or you got, you got, you got, you're running in

the NFL team.

You can pick any wide receiver to start your team.

Who are you picking?

It's a right now.

Yeah.

I'm probably going Jefferson.

Yep.

I can't really like that.

Totally legit.

Yeah.

I would probably go to Jefferson too.

Yeah.

I would.

I would say Jefferson or maybe I'm on Ross St. Brown.

I love that.

Oh, that's another good name to put on that.

Yeah.

Great name.

Doesn't get mentioned enough.

Yep.

It is nice to see he's starting to get flowers.

He's starting to get some cred and everything.

Yeah.

As Detroit gets better.

And Michael, that is one thing I want to get into before we get into River King's hockey

with you and our course NFL Central, the North, the greatest division in football.

When it comes to that, Detroit has, Detroit has done something in the last couple of years

that I think only those of us that really are focused locked in for the last 20, 30 years,

whatever it is, to this division.

Detroit isn't just good now.

Okay.

That's been cool to see.

I'm kind of used to that now.

Detroit has not, they were a darling for a while.

That's different.

They are what our River Kings are now.

They are the hunted.

Detroit has become the hunted.

Detroit has become where these players on this team are not just known by us.

I'm on St. Brown's doing commercials for little Caesars.

They're like, they're known now.

They're not only the hunted, they're popular.

They have become a bit of America, not America's team, but not that far along.

Yeah.

But they have become known.

They may know.

Yeah.

They become known more now.

And I don't know.

That's almost as good as winning.

It's not as good.

But if you're trying to run, it is still a business.

And you got to be able to sell jerseys.

You got to be able to get your players into commercials.

All these things.

Detroit has done that.

And they did it without Barry Sanders or Calvin Johnson.

That's impressive.

I mean, our football lifetimes.

Who would have thought?

Who would have thought?

It didn't surprise me to say the Arizona Cardinals have a good year or two.

It didn't surprise me to see certain teams like that.

But to see Detroit that has been dormant our whole lives.

And before we were ever born, that is pretty cool.

I know that we all got a stake in this.

You know, all three of us got a team in this division.

Right.

And we care about winning the division.

And winning means everything to us and blah, blah, blah.

If just take a step back, that's kind of cool.

And rising tide raises all boats.

It helps everybody in the division.

Yeah.

If you want your team to be competitive, if they're worth anything,

and their front office is worth anything, they're seeing what Detroit is doing,

and they're trying to compete with it.

And that makes your team better.

So even if you don't like this or like Detroit being good,

it benefits your team because the rising tide raises all boats.

I think that's true.

Did anybody have this in their lifetime ever happen?

No, I don't think I did.

I didn't have this happening.

I have a Detroit Lions t-shirt,

and I barely can fit into it now, but that's a me problem.

But it was the 2008 year when they were on 16.

And like the Jerry Kramer commercial, yeah, I was there.

I was at the game at the end of the year when Green Bay went six and ten

and Detroit went all on 16.

And the shirts, the blue, and on the front,

it says 2008 preseason champions,

but they went four and all in that preseason.

And on the back, it says believe in never,

and then I had the four games with against who they played and the scores.

And on the bottom, it says rebuilding since 1956.

Wow.

I still proudly, if I can wear it, if I can fit in it,

I still proudly wear that.

I still got it.

It's the reason why I still wear my shirt next week for a full seven days.

Dub air is still suck.

I mean, that's why I wear that shirt every day.

Well, sorry, James.

No, no, they do.

They do suck.

Or my Minnesota shirt.

It's purple. It's got the yellow letters.

And it says school.

And it's in the dictionary.

And it says Norse for maybe next year.

Oh, not bad.

I like that one.

I'm going to use it.

That is good.

You know, this is, and this is, this is football.

This is this one for us all about Detroit.

Detroit's also the one laughing now.

If I'm a Detroit fan, and I see that t-shirt,

I'm laughing harder than you are, Michael.

They are, they are, oh, they're good about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They're the best team in, I don't,

and I cannot think of another team in the NFC that's better than them right now.

I don't know if there's a better team in football right now.

Are they?

I've been hearing chief killer.

This is what I've been hearing for a couple of people.

It's the, it isn't just building a, you know, they talk about,

okay, a coach is going to come in and rebuild the culture

and rebuild the coaching staff and rebuild the players and all of that.

You don't see it happen that often.

Like, it's actually happening.

We're watching it in real time.

This guy came in, not a, you know, the, the, the,

I actually kind of like Mike McDaniel and Miami.

But not that guy.

The offensive guru that comes in the MATLA floor or somebody like that.

It's not your cookie cutter coach that everybody's taking in now.

You know, there was a string there where they got hiring college coaches.

They had a string there a little while ago where they're hiring everybody

who had coffee with McVeigh.

You know, they didn't know Shanahan.

Yeah.

I said, hi, do it once.

Yeah, you're hired.

He doesn't fit any of that.

None of this makes sense on paper.

But it's working and it's working really well and it's consistent and it's something

they might be able to build on for multiple, multiple years.

They may have actually turned this whole ship around.

It gives hope to some other franchises out there.

Dear God, please.

Except for Carolina.

And that at all.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Except Carolina's a lost cause.

But Carolina is going to need the ghost of Cam Newton or something.

I don't know.

Michael, how have you been enjoying Colin River King's hockey so far this season?